Pastor Appreciation Month Beyond Gift Cards and Plaques

It’s Pastor Appreciation Month! What if this year we went beyond gift cards and plaques to show a deeper level of appreciation? Don’t get me wrong—pastors love gift cards, and I still hang up the plaques I’ve received through the years. Please take a Sunday this month to recognize your pastor—and don’t forget their spouse and family, too! Give them loads of gift cards and come up with the most creative plaques you can.

But what if, this year, your church went beyond recognition, applause, and tokens of appreciation? What if your church took the time to reflect on the complex role of pastoral leadership? What if you considered what pastors urgently need and worked to provide healthy resources that support their ministry?

We know pastors work hard. They proclaim the gospel with a new sermon every Sunday. They nurture our spiritual well-being. They walk with us through our hardest seasons. They provide vision and leadership for the future. They manage staff and volunteers. They even spend more time than we realize maintaining buildings and cleaning up messes—both spiritual and physical!

Many jobs are demanding, but few require the breadth of skills, the flexibility of talent, and the emotional resilience of a pastor. How can we show true appreciation for such passionate and faithful work? By committing to meaningful support.

Rhythms of Pastoral Renewal

One of the best ways churches can care for pastors is by helping them establish and protect healthy rhythms of renewal. A practical approach is to develop a pastoral calendar of renewal—and then commit to supporting it. A healthy rhythm might include:

• A Sabbath day every week

• A retreat every quarter

• A sabbatical every 7 years

  
  

Weekly Sabbath

The first and most important element is a weekly Sabbath. Pastors need a day of rest other than Saturday or Sunday. Sundays are workdays, and Saturdays often involve sermon preparation. Churches should guard and honor a weekday Sabbath when pastors can unplug and truly rest.

Quarterly Retreats

The second element is a quarterly retreat. Pastoral work is both creative and emotional. Each week pastors craft sermons, design Bible studies, and guide worship, while also leading funerals, visiting the sick, counseling, and praying with people in crisis. That is draining work. Quarterly retreats allow pastors to refill their spiritual reservoirs, renew creativity, and re-center emotionally.

These retreats are not vacations but intentional times for prayer, reading, worship, sermon planning, and professional growth. They don’t always need to be out of town, though sometimes getting away is especially helpful. For example, I used to spend several days at the Library of Congress doing sermon planning—it was refreshing simply to be in a new space away from phone calls and emails.

Our own Mid-Atlantic CBF offers a two-day clergy retreat every February at a minimal cost. Opportunities like this are invaluable for sustaining long-term ministry.

Sabbaticals

The third element is a sabbatical every 5–7 years. Sabbaticals usually last 6–12 weeks and are not extended vacations but dedicated time for new forms of work and renewal. Pastors are often on call 24/7, even on days off or during family vacations. Sabbaticals provide an untethered season for deep refreshment—some pastors write, study, travel, or explore new ministry models.

Most pastors will not ask for a sabbatical. They fear it’s a burden to the church financially or optically. But if you want to show real appreciation, create a sabbatical policy, defend it, and use resources available to help fund it.

A Call to Churches

Healthy churches understand that pastoral work is creative work, emotional work, and soul work. That kind of work requires rhythms of renewal. The greatest gift you can give your pastor is not just recognition but real support: help create and protect a calendar of renewal so that your pastors can continue to serve with joy, energy, and vision.